The 'Parekh Report' - national identities with nations and nationalism

‘Multiculturalists’ often advocate national identities. Yet few study the ways in which ‘multiculturalists’ do so and in this article I will help to fill this gap. I will show that the Commission for Multi-Ethnic Britain’s report reflects a previously unnoticed way of thinking about the nature and worth of national identities that the Commission’s chair, and prominent political theorist, Bhikhu Parekh, had been developing since the 1970s. This way of thinking will be shown to avoid the questionable ways in which conservative and liberal nationalists discuss the nature and worth of national identities while offering an alternative way to do so. I will thus show that a report that was once criticised for the way it discussed national identities reflects how ‘multiculturalists’ think about national identities in a distinct and valuable way that has gone unrecognised

How do children with amelogenesis imperfecta feel about their teeth?

Amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) is an inherited dental condition affecting enamel, which can result in significant tooth discolouration and enamel breakdown, requiring lifelong dental care. The possible impact of this condition on children and adolescents from their perspectives is not fully understood

Oral manifestations of vitamin D deficiency in children

Vitamin D is key to the musculoskeletal system. Its deficiency can arise from lack of exposure to sunlight and through dietary insufficiency. This can have an impact upon the oral health of an individual, including resulting in chronological hypoplasia enamel defects. Enamel hypoplasia is a quantitative defect in the enamel, presenting as pits, grooves, missing enamel or smaller teeth. The management of these defects can present a challenge to the dentist. This paper outlines the oral manifestations of vitamin D deficiency in the permanent dentition and the treatment modalities used in their management

Challenges in corneal endothelial cell culture

Corneal endothelial cells (CECs) facilitate the function of maintaining the transparency of the cornea. Damage or dysfunction of CECs can lead to blindness, and the primary treatment is corneal transplantation. However, the shortage of cornea donors is a significant problem worldwide. Thus, cultured CEC therapy has been proposed and found to be a promising approach to overcome the lack of tissue supply. Unfortunately, CECs in humans rarely proliferate in vivo and, therefore, can be extremely challenging to culture in vitro. Several promising cell isolation and culture techniques have been proposed. Multiple factors affecting the success of cell expansion including donor characteristics, preservation and isolation methods, plating density, media preparation, trans-differentiation and biomarkers have been evaluated. However, there is no consensus on standard technique for CEC culture. This review aimed to determine the challenges and investigate potential options that would facilitate the standardization of CEC culture for research and therapeutic application

Human Corneal Endothelial Cell Assessment From Tissues Preserved in Serum-Based and Synthetic Storage Media

PURPOSE: To assess the difference between endothelial cells from tissues preserved in media supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS) and recombinant human serum albumin (rHSA). METHODS: In a donor-matched study, 48 tissues were preserved for 28 days at 31°C in Cornea Max and Cornea Syn supplemented with FBS and rHSA, respectively. Endothelial cells were visualized by 2 masked observers before and after preservation. Endothelial cell density (ECD) and the number of iatrogenic folds were counted manually. Alizarin red staining and tight junction protein (Zonula Occludens-1) were used to assess cell morphology (hexagonality and polymorphism). Intraobserver and interobserver cell counts were recorded and analyzed. Wilcoxon and one-way analysis of variance tests were used, where P < 0.05 was deemed statistically significantly different. RESULTS: Significant amount of iatrogenic folds were observed in the tissues supplemented with FBS compared with rHSA postpreservation (P = 0.0007). Approximately 69% and 71% hexagonal cells (P = 0.0303) and 29% and 26% polymorphic cells (P = 0.0234) were observed in the FBS and rHSA groups, respectively. Postpreservation, operator 1 counted 1766 cells/mm in FBS and 1864 cells/mm in rHSA. Operator 2 counted 1702 cells/mm in FBS and 1858 cells/mm in rHSA. ECD counts from FBS (interoperator) were statistically significant (P = 0.0429). However, significance was not observed in the ECD counts (interoperator) from the rHSA-preserved tissues (P = 0.8738). CONCLUSIONS: rHSA-supplemented media allow better visualization of the corneal endothelial cells. This reduces the rate of discard observed due to counting errors. Use of rHSA improves the current standard of care and reduces the use of animal-derived products

Long non-coding RNA profiling of human lymphoid progenitor cells reveals transcriptional divergence of B cell and T cell lineages.

To elucidate the transcriptional 'landscape' that regulates human lymphoid commitment during postnatal life, we used RNA sequencing to assemble the long non-coding transcriptome across human bone marrow and thymic progenitor cells spanning the earliest stages of B lymphoid and T lymphoid specification. Over 3,000 genes encoding previously unknown long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were revealed through the analysis of these rare populations. Lymphoid commitment was characterized by lncRNA expression patterns that were highly stage specific and were more lineage specific than those of protein-coding genes. Protein-coding genes co-expressed with neighboring lncRNA genes showed enrichment for ontologies related to lymphoid differentiation. The exquisite cell-type specificity of global lncRNA expression patterns independently revealed new developmental relationships among the earliest progenitor cells in the human bone marrow and thymus

Role of Solvent Compatibility in the Phase Behavior of Binary Solutions of Weakly Associating Multivalent Polymers

[Image: see text] Condensate formation of biopolymer solutions, prominently those of various intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), is often driven by “sticky” interactions between associating residues, multivalently present along the polymer backbone. Using a ternary mean-field “stickers-and-spacers” model, we demonstrate that if sticker association is of the order of a few times the thermal energy, a delicate balance between specific binding and nonspecific polymer–solvent interactions gives rise to a particularly rich ternary phase behavior under physiological circumstances. For a generic system represented by a solution comprising multiassociative scaffold and client polymers, the difference in solvent compatibility between the polymers modulates the nature of isothermal liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) between associative and segregative. The calculations reveal regimes of dualistic phase behavior, where both types of LLPS occur within the same phase diagram, either associated with the presence of multiple miscibility gaps or a flip in the slope of the tie-lines belonging to a single coexistence region

Corneal storage methods: considerations and impact on surgical outcomes

INTRODUCTION: With recent developments in the field of eye banking, human corneas are not only procured and preserved, but also processed and prepared for transplantation. However, one of the challenges that still persists is the long-term storage of tissues without damaging the corneal endothelial cells. Thus, the review aims at reporting the influence of tissue storage conditions on the clinical outcomes. AREAS COVERED: Endothelial cell loss (ECL), graft survival, and contamination from the tissues stored in hypothermic storage and organ culture and; other storage options such as cryopreservation and lyophilization. EXPERT OPINION: Hypothermic storage and organ culture have shown similar ECL. However, due to the relatively new techniques and limited long-term clinical studies, further evaluation is essential to assess the effect of storage time and conditions on the grafts deemed for endothelial keratoplasty

Adam Smith and Colonialism

In the context of debates about liberalism and colonialism, the arguments of Adam Smith have been taken as illustrative of an important line of anti-colonial liberal thought. The reading of Smith presented here challenges this interpretation. It argues that Smith’s opposition to colonial rule derived largely from its impact on the metropole, rather than on its impact on the conquered and colonised; that Smith recognised colonialism had brought ‘improvement’ in conquered territories and that Smith struggled to balance recognition of moral diversity with a universal moral framework and a commitment to a particular interpretation of progress through history. These arguments have a wider significance as they point towards some of the issues at stake in liberal anti-colonial arguments more generally

Passaging capability of human corneal endothelial cells derived from old donors with and without accelerating cell attachment

In a recent report, we showed that it is possible to establish the culture of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells (HCEnCs) from older donor corneas (usually over 65 year olds) when left to attach in the presence of a viscoelastic solution, potentially increasing the donor pool for culturing HCEnCs. Therefore, we set out to evaluate the outcome of using a viscoelastic solution (Viscoat) to accelerate the attachment of passaged cultured human corneal endothelial cells (HCEnCs). The cells from 28 donor tissues were isolated using peel-and-digest method and evenly seeded into two wells of an 8-well chamber slide. The cells were left to attach after topical application of Viscoat. At confluence, one well was subjected to end-stage characterization, whereas the other well was passaged into another two wells. The cells at P1 were attached with and without the use of Viscoat. The growth rate was monitored; and at confluence, morphometric analysis, corneal endothelial specific (CD166-Tag1A3 & PRDX6-Tag2A12), mitochondrial and respiration assessment (Tom-20 and Seahorse); function-associated (Na+/K+ATPase & ZO-1); proliferative (Ki-67) marker analysis, and viability (Hoechst, Ethidium Homodimer and Calcein AM-HEC) studies were performed. Cells at P0 (with Viscoat) showed 100% confluence at day 9. Cells at P1 with and without Viscoat showed significant difference of confluence 67.0% v 18.8% respectively (p < 0.05). Confluence rate, cell density, hexagonality, Ki-67 positivity and mitochondrial intensity was significantly higher (p < 0.05), whereas cell-area and polymorphism was significantly lower (p < 0.05) in the cells attached with Viscoat compared with the cells attached without Viscoat. There was no significant difference in oxygen consumption rate between the groups. In conclusion, we observed that acceleration in the attachment of passaged HCEnCs with the assistance of Viscoat, could be beneficial for the propagation of HCEnCs isolated from older donors, to increase their propensity to proliferate, without loss of the expression of vital proteins and heterogeneity in cellular morphology